Aer Lingus’ inaugural flight EI804 from Cork to Dubrovnik, took off on an Airbus A320 on May 4. This new service to the Croatian city famed by popular television series Game of Thrones will take to the skies each Tuesday and Saturday during the summer months.

Dubrovnik is the airline’s second new summer sun route direct from Cork, with Nice having just launched in April. It is the final instalment in Aer Lingus’ summer 2019 schedule which sees over 1 million seats available from Cork to European hotspots. This marks a 4% year-on-year increase in capacity on Aer Lingus flights from Cork Airport and reflects the airline’s commitment to expanding the Rebel County’s route network. Aer Lingus is the largest airline servicing Cork Airport both in frequency of flights and seat capacity and currently connects Cork Airport to 23 destinations across the year.

The weight of tradition in Irish culture is one of the main reasons why the Irish born and the diaspora are so proud of their heritage.

More tangible than folklore and holiday traditions, however, are the symbolic historical artefacts that are still in use today.

Aran sweaters, Claddagh rings, tin whistles, and tweed – each object, however commonplace, holds a meaningful position in Irish culture, down to the very stitches of each sweater.

Aran Fisherman Sweaters, which take their name from the three Aran Islands of Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer, are handmade made purely from wool in a variety of stitch patterns, behind each of which lies a story or symbol.

For example, the common Cable Stitch depicts fishermen’s ropes and represents good weather at sea. The Diamond Stitch symbolises the small, neat fields of the Aran Islands, the Irish Moss Stitch symbolises growth and abundance, and various…

As the carrier with the most transatlantic flights from Halifax, WestJet on April 29 began its new nonstop service between Halifax Stanfield International Airport (YHZ) and Dublin Airport (DUB).

WestJet has served the city of Halifax since 2003 and has seen 160 per cent growth in flights to and from Halifax Stanfield. This summer the airline will operate non-stop service to 15 cities with an average of 28 departures per day from Halifax.

Photo: Halifax Stansfield Airport.

WestJet has operated to Dublin, Ireland since 2014 and on June 1 will bring one of its first three Dreamliner aircraft to the city with nonstop service from Calgary.

The Society has added a further tranche of records to its Early Irish Birth, Marriage & Death Indexes. This update adds a further 8,325 births and 5,000 marriages, all drawn from lessor known or underused sources. The total number of names noted among the births is now 70,000 and for marriages 213,000. Overall, between the three databases, there is now a total of 320,000 names.

Included among the newly added marriages are 1,000 events drawn from the Registry of Deeds, which brings the total number of marriages in the index drawn from there to 10,000. While lots of these are formal pre-marriage settlements for wealthy people, there are examples of others for quite ordinary folk, including one dowry amounting to as little as £30. This was for the union of Thomas Shee, a farmer, and his bride Ellis Lanigan, a…

The pool bar at the new TWA Hotel at JFK International Airport, New York (JFK) will become the ultimate airport viewing spot.

The hotel describes its new pool:

A cutting-edge amenity in the clouds! The rooftop infinity pool and observation deck at the TWA Hotel will make a splash on the hotel’s opening day, May 15, 2019 — and remain open 365 days a year.

Always refreshing, the water in the 63-by-20-foot infinity edge pool offers a much-needed respite during sweltering summers. Come winter, it turns into a pool-cuzzi — the water can be heated up to 100 degrees! Whatever the weather, the H2O is perpetually pristine: the highly filtered water is purified every 30 minutes (a standard pool recirculates every 6 hours!).

The hotel will also a Lockheed 1649A Starliner painted in TWA’s livery on the premises:

Planning an Irish vacation this year? Then here’s 15 things to do in Ireland that you’ve never done.

Are you looking for things to do in Ireland? Well look past the Cliffs of Moher, the Giant’s Causeway and even the Guiness Storehouse, and instead look towards the hidden Ireland. Places and experiences normally reserved for locals, or those who knows some locals!

Drink a pint of Guiness

Have you really been to Ireland if you haven’t experienced a decent pint of the black stuff?

Experience Glendalough

Originally a monastic settlement, Glendalough is located outside Dublin and offers a sense of calm you’re unlikely to find in the capital. Take a walk up to the lakes, visit the 6th century monastic city and Glendalough Visitor Centre or stop off in the local hotel for a spot of lunch. While there pop into nearby Enniskerry to experience the charming Irish…

An Ireland-based oral history organization, Irish Life and Lore, invites educators, students and those with an interest in Irish history and folklore to browse its rich archive of audio material and books.

Founded in 1990 by Tralee-based oral historians Maurice and Jane O’Keeffe for the purpose of preserving oral history across Ireland, Irish Life and Lore has compiled, cataloged and archived over 3,000 hours of audio material, arranged into Oral History Collections.

Each themed collection captures a version of the past, which represents the views and sentiments of Irish communities and explores aspects of historical experience that are rarely recorded. Many important topics are covered in the collections, including the Irish revolutionary period, the arts, sport, literature, emigration, local history, folklore, family history and much more.

The online oral history archive may be found at: https://www.irishlifeandlore.com. All individual recordings are available for purchase by download for €6.99 ($7.90…